Flow Boiling Heat Transfer Enhancement via Femtosecond Laser-Textured Inclined Microfeatures

Frederik Mertens (), Thomas Ponnet, Balasubramanian Nagarajan, Senthil Kumar Parimalanathan, Johan Steelant, Sylvie Castagne and Maria Rosaria Vetrano
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Frederik Mertens: Division of Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion (TME), Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Thomas Ponnet: Division of Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion (TME), Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Balasubramanian Nagarajan: Division of Manufacturing Processes and Systems (MaPS) and Flanders Make at KU Leuven M&A, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Senthil Kumar Parimalanathan: TIPs Laboratory, Université Libre de Bruxelles, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Johan Steelant: Flight Vehicles and Aerothermodynamics Engineering Section (TEC-MPA), ESA, ESTEC, NL-2200 Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Sylvie Castagne: Division of Manufacturing Processes and Systems (MaPS) and Flanders Make at KU Leuven M&A, Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Maria Rosaria Vetrano: Division of Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion (TME), Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-23

Abstract: This work addresses enhancing flow boiling heat transfer via the use of engineered surfaces possessing specific novel geometries created via femtosecond laser texturing. Surface functionalization can result in improved, more controlled, and denser nucleation as well as controlled surface rewetting, leading to reduced incipient superheats, higher heat transfer coefficients, reduced flow instabilities, and increased critical heat fluxes with respect to a non-modified reference surface. Specifically, this study investigates how bubble dynamics and heat transfer performance are affected by three different surface textures fabricated on 200 µm thick 316L stainless steel foils using a femtosecond (fs) laser. The examined textures consist of inclined (=45°) microgrooves, inclined (=45°) conical microholes, and laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSSs). Each textured surface’s degree of heat transfer enhancement is assessed with respect to a plain reference surface in identical operating conditions. The working fluid is PP1, a replacement of 3M™ FC-72 in heat transfer applications. Among the tested surfaces, submicron-scale LIPSSs contribute to the rewetting of the surface but only show a slight improvement when not combined with bigger microscale structures. The inclined grooves result in the most gradual onset, showing almost no incipient overshoot. The inclined conical microholes achieve superior results, improving heat transfer coefficients up to 70% and reducing the incipient temperature up to 13.5 °C over a plain reference surface.

Keywords: flow boiling; femtosecond laser; surface engineering; heat transfer enhancement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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